Evangelion Merchandise Selection

Anime and merchandise naturally go hand in hand, with some titles just a thin excuse to create merchandise. Generally the more popular the series, wider and crazier the variety of merchandise available. With Neon Genesis Evangelion, regarded one of the most popular titles of all time, I thought it would be worth looking into the more unusual merchandise available from the franchise. When researching this article I expected to find some oddities, after all you can even get an Eva Unit-01 mountain bike. However I was really surprised by what's out there!

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Firstly, I must state the following. All the products mentioned in this article are real retail items that can be bought! As exchange rates are all over the place at the moment I've included the price in Japanese Yen then US Dollars, then GB Pounds (that's Great British Pounds, the currency of the UK).

These black and white tights sport the new look NERV logo. Just the thing you need if you want to declare your loyalty the mysterious organisation. The existence of these scare me, as I worry someone working for a real company would get the idea of putting their own corporate logo on tights and other undergarments.

This special music mug not only holds your MP3 player, but acts as a speaker too. This ceramic music mug is perfect for erm, listening to music to, I guess. Just the thing when you want to blast out Ode To Joy...

Based on the Rei images from the Puka-puka Rei Ayanami Training Program, this cute glass has a selection of everyone's favourite blue haired Eva pilot. The marketing blurb recommends you fill it not with LCL but with orange juice instead...

To be honest I like this glass, but I must admit it is a bit strange! It just goes to show if they can print on it they'll make merchandise out of it!

Originally used exclusively by the Japanese Evangelion on-line store to tape up packing you too can buy Evangelion store branded packing tape! With the classic Evangelion colours of black with dark red text, the packing tape declares "Caution Fragile" and that it's from the Evangelion Store.

This football (or soccer for our US based readers) is coloured to match Evangelion Unit 01 or Unit 00 it's just the thing you need when you want a good kick about. From what we can gather it's a good FIFA approved grade football too.

When travelling overseas or even on the short domestic flight it's important to get there in style, and also let everyone in the whole baggage handling process know you are an otaku! Which is why in mid April 2009 Bandai will be releasing this lovely suitcase. Apart from having the same signature colours of Evangelion Unit 01 this limited edition item will be dead easy to spot on a baggage carousel. That, and oh it's got the NERV logo on the side.

Now a tarot card tie in with a more mystic anime show, like Escaflowne would be a perfect merchandising opportunity. I'd be curious to know if anyone actually bought these and used them! Rei has been cast as The Fool, Asuka is The Empresses, Shinji is Justice, Kaworu is The Moon, Gendo is the Emperor.

There are tons, of Evangelion dolls out there. If you can think of Asuka and Rei doing it, they've probably made a doll of it, or will soon.
This doll attempts to render Asuka in a more realistic way...
... this scares me more than the tights.

Yes, you read that right. It's bread in a can. To celebrate the launch of the new Evangelion movie, they made bread in a can. Two flavours are available, Strawberry bread for the NERV branded cans, and Chocolate Cream bread for the SEELE branded cans. After you've eaten these yummy treats you can then use the cans as a piggy bank.

Conclusion
This is only a brief selection of the weird and wonderful world of Evangelion merchandising. Some of the product tie ins they've made make perfect sense. Others, erm, well don't. The people at Gainax certainly do like making merchandise. I'm sure you can find plenty more out there!